Tag Archives: lebron-james

The biggest story this week in sport again had nothing really to do with sport and those that play it. I passed comment a few weeks ago about journalists creating stories around themselves and this week it has gone to a whole new level. I am not going to give a view on the rights and wrongs of the whole debate, but it is time we moved on and concentrated on the sport. Richmond’s decision to ban Triple M seems somewhat hypocritical given the Dustin Martin situation earlier this year. Their response would be that the allegations were unfounded but let’s have some consistency in the way these matters are treated.

It was not really a surprise to see Lindsay Thomas not paid free kicks in last Friday nights game against Hawthorn. While Brad Scott’s comments about the umpires was proved to be factually incorrect and he and North paid a hefty price, I have no doubt that the umpires saw the vision and heard the ongoing commentary of and about Thomas in the game against Sydney and were always going to react. No one likes being made a fool of. I harken back to 1999/2000 when Matthew Lloyd was highlighted for diving in a game against Richmond where he received three free kicks. Lloyd got a reputation for diving on the back of that game and while he did take it out of his repertoire, he very rarely received a free kick for being pushed in the back in a marking contest after that game. James Sicily could be next on the list!

An amazing performance by the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA and I think it does emphasise that LeBron James is one of the greatest players of all time and probably the best since Michael Jordan. What has been missed in this is that in culminates in a hat trick of NBA wins by Australian players. Mills & Baynes in 2014, Bogut in 2015 and Dellavedova this year. It is great to see Australians playing on the big stage and hopefully they can all be fit for the Olympics because they have a genuine medal chance.

On Wednesday night I ventured along to the MCG with 91,500 others to watch Game 2 of the State of Origin series between NSW & Queensland. It was certainly a much better game than Game 1 with an early try to both teams. However, the most exhilarating part of the night, the Greg Inglis near length of the field try, was disallowed by the video referee. I don’t claim to be an expert on Rugby League, but to the letter of the law it would seem the decision was correct, but what an anti-climax! In the end the game was essentially decided on two very marginal video referee calls. The Josh Morris try where he appeared to only get a thumbnail worth of downward pressure on the ball and Myles knock-on which cost Inglis his try. Both decisions looked correct on review. I enjoyed the game, but I think rugby league is probably a better game to watch on television, particularly for the uninitiated. That observation may also explain why their club games do not draw big crowds.

The NBA final series came to a close earlier in the week and it was good to see Andrew Bogut celebrate his win with the Golden State Warriors, however, given he had no game time in the last two games and only a couple of minutes in game 4, it may be a slightly hollow feeling for him. He obviously deserved the accolades but it would have been good to see the coach put him on for the last couple of minutes given they had a reasonable lead at that stage. I hark back to the old days with football when you had the 19th & 20th men and the coach would bring them on for the last couple of minutes of a grand final just so they felt part of it. Continuing with the NBA it is hard to see how LeBron James could not be considered the MVP for the final series given his herculean performance, however, I understand that in American sport that the MVP would never go to a player in the losing team.

Great to see the Australian women’s soccer team, the Matildas, get through to the round of 16. I know the team from the United States is always strong in women’s soccer, but Australia was in the ‘Group of Death’ together with the Nigerian and Swedish teams. To get through that group was a very good effort. They now come up against Brazil who are one of the tournament favourites so fingers crossed for the Matildas.

The “3rd man up” in ruck contests in the AFL is generating a bit of discussion at the moment and I think the way Geelong are using it with Mark Blicavs & Rhys Stanley has probably narrowed the discussion. It seemed to me that last week against Port Adelaide, one of them was blocking Matthew Lobbe while the other one took the hit out. That would appear to be contrary to the rules, but not only that, what happens if each side sends another man up, then you have 4 players competing for the throw in and it begins to get farcical. I am starting to agree with Leigh Matthews that the “3rd man up” should be banned.

4 March 2012 237.2 – In the second hour of the show, the Professor asked Daniel what had happened to the NBL season as it seemed to have disappeared with the playoffs beginning soon and the AFL and NRL overshadowing basketball in the news. Sportzfan Stan’s view was that the league’s management needed professional help to increase interest in teams, awareness of games and boost revenues. His feelings were shared by the rest of the panel with discussions centering on the NBL’s lack of promotion of the game and a remedy involving a shared venue with other sports such as netball leading to increased awareness. Daniel reviewed the NBA giving his opinion on the teams, their standings and whether Clipper Darrell had been harshly treated . He also looked at the Twitter tag #BlameLebron. The NRL report from Paul Dalligan included highlights of St. George’s win over the Tinkler Knights. The win surprised Dalligan as the favoured Knights played well. The Professor thought the Raiders v Storm match was the game of the round so far with Billy Slater’s brilliant late try winner being a feature. Dalligan congratulated The Professor on his Bulldogs pulling out a win after overcoming a 14 point deficit. The Panel also discussed Essendon’s no-show for their match on Saturday with St. Kilda in Wangaratta and the AFL originally splitting the game points between the two teams with all in agreement that St. Kilda should receive all four points. Last moment thoughts from the Professor had the Panel discussing the Grand Prix and Bernie Ecclestone’s annual threat of axing the race.

16 October 2011 223.1 The Professor and the Gelding talk about their respective days at the Caulfield and Traralgon races yesterday. The Professor believes that Danish Rock would have beaten the horses in the first five races at Traralgon. Sportzfan Stan and Daniel eventually get introduced and make up for lost time. There is a discussion regarding the televising of NBL games and how they select the games as Daniel thought it would be Perth v Melbourne on Friday night but it turned out to be Townsville v Cairns. Sportzfan Stan asks why people aren’t watching the games on TV and the overall feeling is that the games are on too late. Dan Butterly comes on to talk US sport and looks at the situation in Boston after the Red Sox meltdown with both their coach Terry Francona and GM Theo Epstein leaving. He also looks at the revelations that three pitchers were in the clubhouse during games eating fried chicken, drinking beer and playing video games while their teamates were out on the field. Dan looks at the ALCS and NLCS and believes the Texas Rangers and St Louis Cardinals will play off in the World Series. He comments that hitting is dominating at present. Dan discusses Pete Carroll’s attempt to get LeBron James to play wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks via twitter and the shock teams so far this season in the NFL. He also looks at the ‘almost’ play of the year in College football by Brad Wing, LSU’s Aussie punter and finishes with a review of MWC basketball media day. The Gelding talks racing and reviews yesterday’s races at Caulfield. He got two selections up for the Ladies at the Tennis Club and also awarded an s-hit ride. The Gelding has also put together a Sportzfan Radio stable of horses for the listeners to follow for the Spring carnival.

6 February 2011 188.1 – Daniel says he was surprised at the standard of the play in the Charity Baskets game and he actually enjoyed that game more than the NBL games he has watched this season. The Gelding says watching the game took him back to the great days of the NBL in the 80’s & 90’s. Daniel had one complaint…from his cousin the referee who thought the commentary team were a bit hard on him. Dan Butterly comes on the show to talk US sport and starts with a wrap of the NFL’s Super Bowl between Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers. The weather has been playing havoc with fans getting to Dallas and a bit of a controversy about Ben Rothliesberger taking his linemen to a piano bar for a drink. Daniel asks Dan why Green Bay has been able to get to the Super Bowl so soon after dumping Brett Favre as QB. Dan likes Rothliesberger over Aaron Rodgers at the quarterback position. Dan selects the Steelers even though he knows the Professor won’t like that. Dan then goes on to talk about the negotiations between the NFL and the NFLPA on a new agreement past 2011 which seem to be going nowhere at the moment and might result in a lockout. College basketball is ramping up with March Madness just around the corner with SDSU & BYU in the top ten at present. Dan doesn’t think a team will go through undefeated. He thinks five teams could win the MWC tournament with Pittsburgh and Kansas making the final two in the NCAAB championship game. Given the Caulfield races were washed out, the Gelding looks at the Sydney Colt’s tips from yesterday’s Rosehill meeting. The Professor talks to Daniel about Dwight Howard’s imitation of LeBron James ‘powder clap’, with LeBron then scoring 51 points. Daniel says you should never give a great player ammunition. The Panel discuss Gilbert Arenas being served with a paternity suit at half time of a game and the amount being sought by the mother of the child. They then look at Sportzfan Stan’s suggestion that Al Westover be sacked back in November and it has now happened. Four straight grand finals and two championships didn’t save him.

5 December 2010 182.1 – ‘Hostilities’ start early with Daniel noting that Stan is growing a beard and is dressing like a metrosexual. Guest panelist Axel Dench is welcomed by the Panel and the Professor comments that he thought the Melbourne Tigers, given their recruiting of seven footers, may have called on Axel to fill out the roster. Daniel is on NBL “import” watch and indicates he thinks Eric Devendorf will survive but Craig Winder from the 36ers was wound up. He also confirms LeBron James did the ‘powder clap’ and that the game between the Cavaliers and the Heat was like an NBA finals game.

Mark Fiorenti comes on to talk about the failed Australian bid for the 2022 World Cup. He is shocked that Qatar won and that the Aussies only received one vote in the first round and therefore was eliminated. Mark believes we may have been too honest and not cunning enought to get the required votes. Axel wants to know how Australia could have been so blind sided by how countries would vote. Mark believes we could have been naive and other countries thought getting Australia out early inproved their chamces in latter rounds. The Professor asks just what we could have gotten for our $45 million spent on the failed bid. Australia’s bid video gets unanimously panned by the Panel and Mark says it looked more like a tourism advertisement whilst Daniel says the sports stars we used may be big here but not to the rest of the world. Mark thinks our next bid won’t be until the 2040 World Cup.

The Panel look at a tweet from Lisa Hayes regarding Tom Brady becoming a spokesperson for UGG clothing. We find out that Daniel is a New England Patriots fan. The Professor has Daniel speechless twice in a few minutes saying Tom is the elder brother the Brady Bunch never spoke about. Daniel says the only thing he likes better than basketball is Star Wars and Axel says he gave out more Star Wars autographs than for basketball.

A tweet from Craig Eyles is also discussed regarding the Australian cricket team and the Ashes. Stan says there aren’t enough players playing cricket and not enough care about whether we win the Ashes or not. He says we should sack the selectors and Daniel actually agrees. Axel believes the Aussie fans are front runners and tend to fall off when Australia is not doing well.

I suppose the good thing about all of this is that we can stop talking about the World Cup until it comes time for the Socceroos to qualify for 2014. Rather than give my own thoughts I thought I’d include some from my fellow Sportzfan radio panelists that have crossed my desk since the decision was made earlier today.

Daniel Eade – With Australia unsuccessful after its $45million bid was rejected by the FIFA voting panel, will the A-League survive?

Do we blame Julia Gillard? The Computer Animated Kangaroo? Paul Hogan? The Marketing Department who green-lit the ‘Bid’ video?

So once again, Sportzfanradio made the correct call before everyone else. Well the Professor and Fiorenti called it. They just made sense to me so I agreed with them.

Paul Hogan appeared in the commercial and he got the Taxman off his back. Coincidence?

Sean Callanan – For mine it was always a long shot but I think it is a bit like the old sporting adage you have to lose one to win one. Or in the case of Qatar have so much money no one will care about sunburn.

Paul Dalligan – I don’t think it is far removed from the AFL with their planned $300 million kitty to conquer Western Sydney

I know the Olympics bid was public money, whereas the AFL’s riches have been raised from the game but you can’t conquer new seas if you are afraid to turn your back to the shore

For Mr Democracy Obama to describe the 2022 decision as “wrong”, perhaps we didn’t lose on merit but were defeated by much more sinister forces!

Mark Fiorenti – Disappointed but like I said yesterday and will continue to say, I don’t think the financial report was the be all and all. If it was Qatar wouldn’t have won the bid – in a landslide, no less. The report placed them at 2nd last, yet they scored 11 votes in the first round!

…and you can add to that “no one cares about not being allowed to drink alcohol at the world’s biggest sporting event”.

I agree with the comment “you have to lose one to win one” quote Sean. How many times did Sydney/Aust lose the Olympics before they/we actually won it? Three times from memory.

28 November 2010 181.1 – Daniel is suffering with a toothache and gets plenty of sympathy, especially from Stan who says if you don’t clean your teeth you pay the penalty. The Gelding is late but hopefully he has a note from home. Stan has his weekly question to Daniel on the Melbourne Tigers. Daniel says he doesn’t think Tigers coach Al Westover should be sacked because he likes him. The Gelding talks about the First Ashes Test and the form of Michael Hussey. Daniel wants to know why Brad Hodge isn’t in the team and Stan observes that it is probably due to Victorian batsmen having fallen foul of the selectors in the past. Dan Butterly delivers his US report and starts with a discussion of Vince Young hurling his pads into the stands and then texting an apology to the coach, Jeff Fisher. He thinks that it was easier to get rid of Brad Childress than Brett Favre in Minnesota. He doesn’t think Favre will quit until the end of the season. In the NBA he feels that the Miami Heat don’t have a leader on the team as Wade, LeBron and Chris Bosh are all playing ‘nice’ to each other. Daniel talks to Dan about LeBron’s return to Cleveland and says it should be an exciting game. He would go if he had a ticket. Daniel would like to see LeBron not voted into the starting five in the NBA All Star game and wants the Professor (and Sportzfan listeners) to vote for Amare Stoudemire to try and achieve this. Dan thinks LeBron will do the ‘powder clap’ in Cleveland. He has nothing new to report on Carmelo Anthony and says he will be staying with the Nuggets at this stage. In College football he is amazed that Boise State missed a field goal against Nevada that would have won the game. They went on to lose it and therefore won’t play for the national championship. Dan also talks on the BCS comments from Ohio State President Gordon Gee – he disagrees with him naturally. In MLB, the Yankees playing hardball with Derek Jeter but Dan believes he’ll eventually resign for what the Yankees have offered. Daniel explains the ‘powder clap’ for the listeners. The Gelding talks about the winners and losers from Sandown and Randwick and says the rain played havoc with the fields due to so many scratchings. The Panel discusses the heavy penalty handed out to rider Danny Nikolic over his behaviour to stewards after he was found wearing a modified racing vest.

Prior to commencing this rant, I need to declare myself as a lifelong Green Bay Packers fan.

When I heard that Brett Favre was coming back for another season with the Minnesota Vikings in August this year, I polled a number of people about how difficult it would be at 40+ to step back in as a quarterback in the NFL with no adequate pre-season training or conditioning. It is not surprising that all those questioned said that it would be almost impossible. The season is certainly playing out like that for Favre. There was one other word used by the people responding…’arrogance’. Not a word that I had really associated with Brett Favre until then.

I suppose that I have wanted to give Brett the benefit of the doubt over the years…even through all those years of ‘will he or won’t he?’ (aka THE decision) at Green Bay when, as a supporter, it was what I expect death by a thousand cuts to be like. But that was Brett being Brett and he was in the most part forgiven each year (by the way LeBron only did it once…and look how he has been pilloried in the media).

At the time the Packers made the move to go with Aaron Rodgers, I was dismayed and upset about the thought of Favre not being part of the Packers again. However, the Packers rightly said enough was enough and took control of the quarterback situation for the long term. With the benefit of hindsight it was a great decision as since then Favre’s career reads more like a soap opera episode than a sporting career. If we take out the stellar season with the Vikings last year, we see a mediocre season with the New York Jets where there was bickering amongst the team and this year where the scene is playing out exactly the same only this time in Minnesota. We also have the unwanted distraction of the sordid allegations surrounding Favre and a former Jets female employee which are being investigated by the NFL.

I must say that I never thought I would hear the call from the media for Favre to call it a career and retire….or worse be benched by the Vikings in favour of Tavaris Jackson. But they are the unfortunate realities when one tempts fate and tries to go to the well on one too many occasions.

I sincerely hope that Brett finds a way to exit gracefully from the playing field without the decision being made for him. Like I said, I hope but somehow I think that word ‘arrogance’ may stand in the way of that happening.

14 November 2010 179.2 – Daniel thinks the Melbourne Tigers theme song is very annoying to listen to and believes there should be no basketball theme songs. The Professor wonders whether Daniel was alive when the Leyland Brothers were on television. The ‘F’ word looks at the local A-League scene. Archie Thompson back for Melbourne Victory will be a positive however the Victory have lost one of their other strikers. He doesn’t believe Victory can make the top three given their current ladder position. He is going to see both Melbourne Heart and Victory in the next week but will only be wearing a Heart scarf. Mark also has a quick look at English Premier League and the Socceroos upcoming friendly against Egypt. The Panel discuss IPL’s growing disruption to other forms of cricket with Australia’s test series against Bangladesh needing to be moved as it clashes with IPL matches. Paul Dalligan is stoked about Greg Inglis heading for the Rabbitohs and says it is the biggest signing in his lifetime. He is disppointed that Australia was beaten by the Kiwis in the last minute of last night’s final of the Four Nations Tournament. Social media expert, Sean Callanan believes the Queen has a lot of work to do to catch up to LeBron James on Facebook. He likes people quoting tweets but has a problem with journalists quoting tweets but then not linking back to the original story or using their twitter handle. The NBA and the NHL are always trending on twitter when the games are played which says those Leagues are on the ball with social media.